Abraham Lincoln was not an original advocate of abolition. In fact we know that his journey to what he called “the central act of my administration, and the great event of the nineteenth century” was a relatively slow, though continuous...

Thaddeus Stevens (1792–1868) was the leading Radical Republican in the Civil War–era House of Representatives. Stevens was an unapologetic abolitionist who supported free labor, the enlistment of African Americans in the military, and, later, the redistribution of slaveholders’ lands to former slaves. He played a major role in securing the passage of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. Stevens also led Congress in impeaching Andrew Johnson, proposing and pushing through the resolution for impeachment just...

Charles Sumner (1811–1874) was a Radical Republican senator and reformer who fought for abolition and rights for African Americans. Sumner was born in Boston and attended Harvard Law School. He began his first term in the US Senate in 1852. He immediately denounced the Compromise of 1850 in his first major speech. In May 1856, he delivered another anti-slavery speech. Focusing on the “Crime against Kansas,” Sumner denounced the events in “Bloody Kansas” as well as his pro-slavery colleagues. Among the people Sumner criticized in his speech...